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Your Lunar Nebula

© 2015 Ólafur Elíasson

Your Lunar Nebula
Your Lunar Nebula
ArtistIcelandic, born Denmark, 1967
CultureIcelandic
Titles
  • Your Lunar Nebula
Date2015
MediumPartially-silvered crystal, acrylic paint, and stainless steel
Dimensions65 3/4 × 64 1/8 × 5 7/8 in. (167 × 162.9 × 15 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by the Caroline Wiess Law Accessions Endowment
Object number2015.550
Not on view

Explore Further

Object Type
Description

Ólafur Éliasson is fascinated with how
we perceive the world around us, and like much of his work, Your Lunar Nebula uses perceptual play
to slyly upend our sense of place and scale: standing before the work, we see
ourselves reflected and inverted in the silvered crystal spheres. Stepping
back, the overall array suggests both droplets of water and an imme
nse
cosmos.



Éliasson has
described his sculptures as “devices for the experience of reality.” He
explains further: “As I use these ideas of seeing-yourself-sensing or
sensing-yourself-seeing, they are about trying to introduce relationships
between having an experience and simultaneously evaluating and being aware that
you are having this experience. . . . You could say that I’m trying to put the body
in the mind and the mind in the body.”




ProvenanceThe artist; [Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York]; purchased by MFAH, 2015.
Exhibition History"Crystal: Visible and Invisible," Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, October 12, 2019–January 6, 2020.

"Color into Light," Nancy and Rich Kinder Building Inaugural Exhibition, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, November 15, 2020–November 15, 2022.


Published References Articles featuring closely related work: Leah Gonzalez, “Artist Olafur Eliasson works with glass and mirrors to create kaleidoscopic artworks that breach dimensions,” PSFK, April 20, 2015 (review of Aarhus Kunstmuseum exhibition), http://www.psfk.com/2015/04/Olafur-Eliasson-artworks-psychedelic-art-aros-aarhus-kunstmuseum.html

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.

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